Page 157 of Cashmere Ruin

“Says the man who married me first.”

“I think we’ve established that I deeply regret it.”

Petra shrugs. “Maybe we were always meant to be something else.”

“Like what?” I frown.

“Siblings-in-law?” she offers. “We certainly bicker enough.”

Siblings.The idea should be ridiculous. I don’t share a single drop of blood with Petra—how could I possibly put her in the same place as Yuri?

And yet, when she says it like that, it doesn’t sound ridiculous at all. It sounds… factual.

It sounds right.

“Have I told you I despise you?”

“Only every day,” she says wearily. “Now, go make things right with April. I don’t want to be poked full of holes again next time she needs a living mannequin.”

“She poked you full of holes?”

“‘Accidentally.’ Didn’t I tell you she was mad at me, too?”

I shake my head. If there’s one thing I’ll never understand, it’s this weird friendship of theirs. It would have been much easier to hate each other.

But hate is exhausting. Like love, it takes constant energy.

And, unlike love, it never gives back.

“Thank you.”

“For my sacrifice?”

“Among other things.”

Petra crumples the empty chip bag and dunks it in the trash. Then she turns to me from the doorway. “By the way, if you want to pay me back, you can do one thing.”

“Which is?”

“Stop sending my boyfriend on errands. I haven’t seen him in two days. I’m starting to forget what he looks like.”

I frown. Why would Yuri…?

Oh.Right. In all the chaos, I forgot to call off the surveillance on Vlad. “My mistake. I’ll make sure he comes back to you in one piece.”

“That’s all a girl can ask for.”

She starts to leave, but I stop her. “Petra.”

“Yeah?”

“Your father’s in the clear. I thought you should know.”

I watch her shoulders drop imperceptibly. With her back turned, I can’t see her face, but maybe it’s better that way. I have a feeling she wouldn’t want me to see. Some things aren’t for the eyes of others.

“Is that all?”

“That’s all.”

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